Sandy Simpson: The New Apostolic Reformation – Part 2

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are kravenous wolves.” – Matthew 7:15

A year ago, for the November 2011 episode, I interviewed Sandy Simpson on the New Apostolic Reformation. Sandy heads up the Apologetics Coordination Team, and runs Deception in the Church, an extensive library of resources on the NAR and related movements and organizations. This episode is a follow-up to our previous discussion. We began with the assumption that those listening have heard the first discussion we had. If you haven't, that episode can be found here. We will answer some questions people had from that episode, get into some further examination of the New Apostolic Reformation, and try to keep from repeating what was already covered as much as possible.

Sandy and I discussed possibly doing a third episode on this topic. The intention is to frame that episode entirely around listener questions. If you have any questions you'd like to contribute to that episode, please leave a voicemail, send an email, or post it in the comments section below.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:18 — 22.8MB)

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An Outline of the Discussion

• Essential Doctrines
  • The New Apostolic Reformation either twists or outright denies five key essential doctrines of the Christian faith:
    • The Trinity
    • The Dual Nature of Christ (The Hypostatic Union)
    • Salvation by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone
    • The Authority of Scripture
      • Inerrancy
      • Sufficiency
    • The Doctrine of the Return of Christ
      • Christ is going to return bodily to judge and rule the Earth
  • The NAR teaches heretical doctrines that come out of the “New Order of the Latter Rain,” which goes back to the 1950's and William Branham
    • God is restoring foundational apostles and prophets to the Church in these last days. With this, they teach that there is a transferable impartation, or annointing that they can give to people to activate them in the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands.
    • The occultic practice of “slaying in the spirit,” which is identical to the Hindu practice, which is called “Shakti-Pat.”
    • There will be a world-wide end-times revival, in direct contradiction to the Bible, which says there will be a great falling away, or apostacy.
    • Many deny the Rapture of the Church
    • We must take dominion over the Earth by taking over the governments, businesses, etc.
  • Responding to a follower of NAR who excuses leaders for teaching verifiably false doctrine:
    • An ability to discern truth and error is a sign of spiritual maturity.
    • Jesus' admonition in Matthew 7:1 (Judege not, lest ye be judged) does not apply to every situation. Later in the same chapter, in Matthew 7:15 Jesus warns his disciples to watch out for false prophets.
    • Christians are to mark and avoid false teachers (Romans 16:17).
    • They are to reject heretics (Titus 1:13).
    • They are to be salt and light, point out truth, and call out heretics by name so that people will not listen to them, just as the apostles and prophets did.
    • They are to demonstrate that they love the Lord by obeying His commands. (1 John 3:24, 5:3, John 15:10, etc.)
  • Listener Wayne asked the question: Who made [these guys] apostles and prophets?
    • It goes back to the beginning, especially with the Kansas City Prophets and Paul Cain, an associate of William Branham, who brought these false doctrines forward.
    • Claiming to be equal to (or even greater than) the original, foundational apostles is a key sign to show them to actually be false apostles.
• We discuss Hermeneutics – proper hermeneutics vs. the hermeneutic of the NAR.
  • Exegesis is a proper hermeneutic that is a careful exposition of the text based on a careful, objective analysis of the text in context. Exegesis literally means “lead out of”.
  • Eisegesis is a subjective non-anylitical reading of the text. Eisegesis literally means “to lead into.” The interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.
  • Hermeneutics is the science that teaches the principles, laws and methods of interpretation. Whenever we attempt to interpret anything, be it the IRS code, the sports page, a novel or the Bible we use certain hermeneutical methods. When we seek to understand almost any literature, besides the Bible, we all tend to use normal, literal hermeneutics. Loosely this means that we take words and sentences at face value, expecting that the author meant what he said and we can understand what he meant. Theologians call this the grammatical-historical approach. But when it comes to the Bible, Christians throughout history have had a hard time using normal hermeneutics. Instead they have tried to infuse into the Word meanings that were never intended. – Gary Gilley
• Youth-oriented ministries that are involved in New Apostolic teachings:
  • Youth with a Mission (YWAM)
    • Started by John Dawson, who influenced C. Peter Wagner in the false spiritual warfare doctrines.
    • The leadership of NAR has sad that YWAM and World Vision are working with them to spread their message to the world (Mike Bickel said it on Sandy's NAR DVD).
    • YWAM teaches all of the false doctrines of the NAR, as well as Emergent Church, Contemplative Prayer, and they have been supporting and promoting the “World Gathering of indigenous People” movement, which encourages indigenous peoples to go back to their culture's original false god and worship him/it as the true God.
  • Intervarsity Christian Fellowship
    • Intervarsity supports many of the goals and objectives of the New Apostolic.
  • Campus Crusade for Christ
    • Now called “Cru”
    • Involved with C. Peter Wagner since the days of AD 2000 and Ralph Winter.
    • Involved in “Strategic Level spiritual warfare,” of Wagner, Dawson, Ed Silvoso, and others
    • For many years, Campus Crusade (a.k.a. Cru) has been involved with YWAM, and the World Christian Gathering of Indigenous Peoples and promoting their false doctrines.
  • International House of Prayer (IHOP)
    • Headed by Mike Bickle, one of the original Kansas City Prophets.
    • Promotes all of the false teachings of the “Latter Rain”
    • In answering an email question, Sandy addresses IHOP's false teaching of an open Canon of scripture (which he labels as neo-gnosticism) and contempletive prayer. Contempletive prayer is a pagan practice that has been taught by the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Mysticism
• Spiritual Warfare:
  • The spiritual warfare techniques taught by the NAR are dangerous. Sandy fears for both the spiritual and physical safety of practicianers of NAR spiritual warfare.
  • A biblical understanding of the Armor of God (Ephesians 6) is very Gospel-centric.
  • There is no basis in authority over demons without the Holy Spirit
  • True spiritual warfare involves the preaching of the Gospel, discipleship, and the teaching of discernment.
  • Sandy addressed a voicemail question about Bob Larson, who engages in spiritual warfare on “Christian” television. Sandy believes that Bob Larson has a connection to the New Apostolic, but also does his own thing. Much of what Larson does is just to put on a show, is not Biblical, and doesn't even resemble Sandy's actual experiences with demonic possession.
• Dominionism:
  • Dominionism is the idea that we are supposed to be taking over the systems of government, the businesses, and everything in the world. It comes from the Latter Rain. It also has its roots in Amillenialism and Preterism.
  • Sandy likens it to Islamic Fascism, and labels it a form of “Christian Fascism.”
  • The teaching presupposes that Christ cannot return until His people take over the world.
• General Comments:
  • Listener Paul commented after the last episode that the Sentinal Group had changed its name to Glow Torch. Sandy acknowledges that it's not uncommon for groups affiliated with the NAR to change their names to stay ahead of the consequences of Discernment groups exposing their teachings.
  • We weren't able to get to some questions submitted by listener Arwen. However, one of the things Arwen asked about was Sandy's opinion of Bill Johnson. Johnson was addressed last February in an entire episode I did with Bob DeWaay.

Scriptures Referrenced

• Titus 2:13
• Matthew 7:1
• Matthew 7:15
• Romans 16:17
• Titus 1:13
• 2 Peter 2:1
• 1 John 3:24
• 1 John 5:3
• John 15:10
• Acts 17:11
• 1 Corinthians 15:2
• 1 Timothy 3:9
• Luke 9:23
• 1 Timothy 6:15
• John 8:36

Additional Resources

• Sandy Simpson: The New Apostolic Reformation – Echo Zoe Radio, episode 43
• Deception in the Church – Sandy's Website
• What Should I Say? – Sandy Simpson
• The New Apostolic Reformation: What is it and where is it going? – Sandy Simpson (Book)
• The New Apostolic Reformation: What is it and where is it going? – Sandy Simpson (DVD Series)
• The life, teachings and legacy of William Branham – Mike Oppenheimer (DVD)
• How To Discern, Test & Judge Rightly – Sandy Simpson
• Let's Take A Look At The “Judge Not” Argument For A Moment! – Sandy Simpson
• Articles on Youth With A Mission – Sandy Simpson
• Idolotry in their Hearts – Sandy Simpson & Mike Oppenheimer (BooK)
• “Blasphemizing” The Bible – Sandy Simpson (Book)
• The Battle against the Queen of Heaven on Mt. Everest – Mike Oppenheimer (DVD)
• Megashift or Megaslip Mike Oppenheimer
• The “Script” Underlying Spiritual Warfare Christianity – Orrel Steinkamp
• Three Fallacies Of Third Wave Spiritual Warfare Teachings – Sandy Simpson
• A Tale Of Two Kingdoms – Sandy Simpson (article)
• Bob DeWaay: Bill Johnson, IHOP, & Ancient Heresy Reborn – Echo Zoe Radio, episode 46
• Articles on Bill Johnson – Sandy Simpson

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